the chinese new year outfit

My apologies for just now getting around to posting this week! It has been nuts over here with Chinese New Year and work and blah, blah, blah... Actually, you know what? Real life is dull. Let me revise my excuse. I was MIA the earlier half of this week because I was too busy solving the world energy crisis and training a guinea pig choir to sing AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" to post.

There. Isn't that a much more entertaining story than "I couldn't post because I was too busy watching the first 3 seasons of Friends"?

But anyhoodle, I'm back now and with my outfit from Monday's Chinese New Year celebration! BEHOLD:

though it may look like it, I am not actually with child.
unless you count 2 years of holiday weight as "with child."

dress, j.crew
cardigan, j.crew
tights, urban outfitters
belt, f21
flats, urban outfitters
watch, fossil
bangle, kate spade
skull ring, ebay
black ring, novica

I also wanted to show off what I made for dinner that night! It was my first time making dumplings and they turned out swell. Woohoo!

That weird marbled-looking thing is a tea egg, which is just a regular hardboiled egg that's been steeped in black tea, soy sauce, and star anise. One of my favorites! If you're interested, here's the dumpling recipe. The tea egg recipe is my own and I won't bore you with it here.

mucho maxi

I snapped some photos of my outfit yesterday, but I looked decidedly cracked out of my mind in all of them (well, more than usual, anyway) so I decided to not post them. Instead, here's an outfit from a few days ago...

shirt, gap
cami, cotton on
skirt, zara
belt, mom's
ring, f21
bangle, kate spade

I'm living in maxi skirts this summer. They're just so easy to wear! Not to mention that they are the most logical choice for me when it comes to enduring the typical triple-digit temperatures of Houston. I mean, whenever I hear that the high is going to be 110 degrees, my first instinct on wardrobe options is "NAKED," so it's excellent that I have an alternative to that.

A while back, I did a guest DIY post for one of my absolute favorite bloggers (Infinite Whimsy), and there was a good response to my crafting skillz (with a 'z' which is how you know it's for real). Unfortunately, I don't craft all day, every day, so I can't do craft-type DIY posts regularly. But, I do create different and new dishes/desserts on a regular basis, so I will include some recipe successes whenever I come across them and count them as pseudo-DIYs. Sound good?

Today, I present to you one of my new favorites light lunches/dinners -- asparagus with a fried egg and pecorino cheese:


I got the recipe from Steamy Kitchen, and you can find it here. The only changes I made is that I used pecorino cheese instead of parmesan because it's what I had on hand. The result was still outrageously delicious for something that's only 3 ingredients, if you don't include the salt and pepper.

a little bit of leopard on my feet

Yesterday's tartlet was a success. It was absolutely worth skipping the early morning donut! For those of you who are interested, I used this recipe for a coconut crust raspberry tart from Lottie + Doof, but halved everything (including the cooking times) to make 2 tartlets.

Each one was about the size of a CD, and was packed with fresh raspberry and toasty coconut goodness!

Now that I have succeeded in making myself hungry, here's the OOTD. Be forewarned -- the contrast/lighting has been weird in my last few OOTD photos because the sun has been refusing to cooperate in the morning. I did my best to fix these issues in Photoshop, but... well...

reed shirtdress, anthropologie

wide belt, calvin klein

black tights, xhilaration

leopard flats, steve madden

stone duchess ring, j.crew

gold bangle, kate spade

'lunar eclipse' nail polish, orly

I bought these leopard flats waaaay back when because I decided while at DSW that they simply had to be mine. Then I proceeded to entirely neglect them. Shame on me! I decided today, though, that these funky little kicks would be the perfect thing to add some "spice" to an otherwise sedate shirtdress. I don't know if it works, but I like the results!

Have any of you recently rediscovered a neglected item in your closet?